Eric Mar and Malia Cohen call for workplace domestic violence policy

Six days after voting to remove suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi from office for bruising his wife (but failing to get enough supervisors to join them), Supervisors Eric Mar and Malia Cohen announced plans to push a long-stalled workplace policy for domestic violence. The policy, likely to be modeled after a program used in Los Angeles, would apply to all 26,000 city and county employees and their workplaces. Including, you guessed it, the sheriff’s department.

“If an employee shows up at the workplace with a black eye, how should you offer resources to them?” asked Emily Murase, director of the Department on the Status of Women. “Our departments don’t have the first clue about how to handle that.”

Murase said roughly one in three women will be the victims of domestic violence during their lifetimes, which means there could be hundreds or more city employees being abused at home at any given time.

Though the details are still being worked out, the policy would require each department to designate a liaison to handle domestic violence issues among its employees. City employees would be responsible for notifying the liaisons if they witness or hear about behavior that is threatening of violent. The policy would require the Department of Human Resources to train those liaisons on what to do next, including how to offer services to the victims or potentially help them take out a restraining order.

According to the draft policy, each department would also have to maintain an emergency security response plan for instances in which a stalker may be threatening a victim at the workplace. The liaison may also arrange for the victim to have priority parking near the office, have phone calls screened or take a leave of absence or work flexible hours to accommodate court appearances or counseling.

Murase’s department began drafting the policy two years ago, but was unable to complete the process due to budget cuts and the loss of staff. Mar and Cohen on Tuesday will introduce legislation at the Board of Supervisors to have the board’s legislative analyst prepare a report looking at the best practices of similar policies around the country. Mar said he hopes a policy will be officially adopted here within a few months.

Cohen said she was even more motivated to create the policy after last week’s vote to reinstate Mirkarimi.

“One thing that’s very clear is that domestic violence is never a personal matter,” she said. “It’s a crime. Point blank, it’s a crime.”

Mar said he had timed the introduction of the legislation to October being Domestic Violence Awareness Month and he actually delayed introducing it until after last week’s Mirkarimi vote at the request of some fellow supervisors. Asked whether they would support a recall of the sheriff, Cohen answered immediately that she would, while Mar said he wasn’t yet sure.